Jobless rate sliding in 'right direction'

Somerlot: Focus on linking education, needed job skills

Dec. 30, 2012

Written by

The Marion Star

MARION — A Marion County Job and Family Services official would like to see the local unemployment rate fall below the state’s. But a decline of 1.5 percent from November 2011 to November 2012 shows “we definitely are heading in the right direction,” Roxane Somerlot said.

Health care and manufacturing are major sectors of employment in Marion County, said Somerlot, director of Marion County Job and Family Services.

“Our knowledge about hiring and employment activity tends to center around the employers we work directly with, and we tend to work with manufacturers in town,” she said. “We work some with health care. We see some the long-term care area with steady employment and home health services with steady employment. ... Health care has always been a major segment. When people come to the point they need additional training, in health care we have a lot of people we support in training.”

Marion County’s unemployment rate increased to 6.9 percent in November from 6.8 percent in October, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The unemployment rate in Marion County was 8.4 percent in November 2011.

The jobless rate statewide was 6.5 percent in November, up from 6.3 percent in October and down from 7.5 percent in November 2011. Unemployment percentages in counties surrounding Marion last month, with the November 2012 figure, the October 2012 figure and the November 2011 figure listed respectively, were: Crawford, 7.5, 8.4, 9.7; Delaware, 4.5, 4.5, 5.3; Hardin, 6.3, 6.1, 7.8; Morrow, 6.5, 6.1, 7.7; Union, 5.1, 5.0, 5.9; and Wyandot, 6.2, 6.1, 7.9.

Tax increases and spending cuts known collectively as the “fiscal cliff” that kick in as 2012 ends and threaten to send the country back into recession are a concern, but what she said are the federal and state governments’ growing emphasis on the relationship between education and employment is promising.

“I think the federal government and our governor, as well, are committed to workforce development and training and kind of a renewed focus on linking education with the real-time need of our business community,” Somerlot said.

On Friday, Gov. John Kasich announced the Ohio Incumbent Workforce Training Voucher Program.

It’s an employer-driven program designed to provide direct financial assistance to train workers and improve the economic competitiveness of Ohio’s employers, according to an Ohio Development Services Agency news release. The voucher program is designed to offset a portion of the employer’s costs to upgrade the skills of its existing workforce and will provide reimbursement to eligible employers for specific training costs incurred during training. The program’s funding will be used in conjunction with private contribution to fund skill-upgrade training. Eligible employers must demonstrate that by receiving funding help through the voucher program, their business will obtain a skilled workforce and improve its processes and competitiveness.

Somerlot said the new voucher program addresses a concern expressed by employers for a “long time” about being able to upgrade the skills of current employees.

“There hasn’t been a source of funding that addresses that in any significant way,” she said, referring to the program, applications for whose funding begins Jan. 7. She said the state uses part of the casino licensing fees to support such retraining or upgrading programs for incumbent employees. “We’re hoping to get as many of those dollars into Marion County as we can. The race begins Jan. 7. We’ve already talked to a couple of employers we feel that would be a good fit for. As a community everyone that works with businesses is going to try to link that resource to our local companies.”

She said the new program supplements an existing on-the-job-training reimbursement program for new hires that Marion County Job and Family Services administers.

“We have the ability to reimburse that employer usually for 50 percent of the wage during, and that can be up to 90 percent of the wage,” she said. “Usually it’s the smaller the company the higher the reimbursement rate.”

Ron Meade, Opportunity Marion manager, said about a dozen local companies have accessed that program.

“The interesting thing is when we talk about it with companies at the beginning of that conversation there’s some apprehension about complications, commitments, red tape or string that they can’t see, and certainly that’s understandable,” Somerlot said. “We find this program is really easy for employers to navigate. It really does work and really is generally painless and a way we can help employers who may be on the fence about hiring that next person to offset some of that risk.”